Despite the positive economic situation in Germany, companies increased their spendings in the above the line media cautiously by only 0.5% to a total of 9.8 billion Euros from January – April 2018 compared to the same period last year. Advertising investments were reduced or shifted to channels not measured by Nielsen, like content marketing, social media or search.

​According to Zenith in March, the German advertising market would grow by2.3% in 2018. They estimate the online share in total advertising investments to rise to 36.1% this year and to be at 40% in 2020.

Dentsu Aegis Network in its latest forecast project German media spend to increase by 2.6% this year (2017: +2.2%). For 2019, they expect a plus of 3%. The digital media would position themselves as number one with a share of 36.3% in the total expenditures and are to surpass TV in 2018. The growth drivers of the digital media are expected to be mobile and social media with particularly high growth rates (+38.2% resp. +22%).

Regarding digital advertising (online and mobile) in Germany, the association of online marketers OVK forecast net investments to grow by 10% this year (2017: +8%) to a record sum of 2.12 billion Euros.